Special to CosmicTribune.com, August 18, 2025 Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report. MONDAY, AUGUST 18 ■ Titan casts its shadow on Saturn tonight. Every 15 years, Saturn’s largest moon repeatedly crosses Saturn’s face from Earth’s viewpoint — and, more visibly, casts its very tiny black shadow onto Saturn’ face. A series of these events is now under way. They will […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, July 21, 2025 Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report. The waning crescent Moon in the dawn passes Venus, then Jupiter. Look before or during early dawn, while the sky is still pretty dark, to spot the horntips of Taurus a well as the rest of Taurus off the frame to the upper right. MONDAY, JULY […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, July 14, 2025 Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report. SUNDAY JULY 13 ■ Scorpius is sometimes called “the Orion of Summer” for its brightness, its 1st-magnitude red supergiant star, and its many blue-white giants. But Scorpius passes a lot lower across the southern sky than Orion does. So for those of us at mid-northern latitudes […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, March 10, 2025 Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report. MONDAY, MARCH 10 ■ Mars, Pollux, and Castor in Gemini pass nearly overhead soon after nightfall this week, if you live in the world’s mid-northern latitudes. Mars is still the brightest. Pollux and Castor go smack overhead if you’re near latitude 30° north. Those “twin” heads of […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, February 10, 2025 Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 10 ■ After dinnertime Sirius the Dog Star blazes in the southeast, the brightest star of Canis Major. Look below Orion. Every February, the Moon is full or nearly so when it crosses Gemini. This February Mars greets it there. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11 ■ Full Moon […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, January 27, 2025 Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report. MONDAY, JANUARY 27 ■ While the evenings are still dark and moonless, use big binoculars or a telescope to hunt down the 8th-magnitude globular cluster M79 in Lepus below the feet of Orion. Summer is the season for most globular clusters, but here we have a rare […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, September 22, 2024 Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report. SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 22 ■ Goodbye to summer — at last! Today is equinox day. Earth passes the September equinox point in its orbit at 8:44 a.m. EDT (12:44 UT). This is when the Sun, in its six-month journey south, crosses the celestial equator — and equivalently, […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, August 19, 2024 Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report. SUNDAY, AUGUST 18 ■ Whenever bright Vega shines nearest your zenith, as it does right after dark now. Two hours later, when Deneb passes the zenith, it’s the turn of little Delphinus and boat-shaped Capricornus down below it to stand at their highest due south. After […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, July 29, 2024 Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report. SATURDAY, JULY 27 ■ Last-quarter Moon (exact at 10:52 p.m. EDT). The Moon, in Pisces, rises around 11 or midnight tonight below the head of Andromeda and the Great Square of Pegasus. SUNDAY, JULY 28 ■ Starry Scorpius is sometimes called “the Orion of Summer” — […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, January 8, 2024 Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report. SUNDAY, JANUARY 7 ■ Sirius and Procyon in the balance. Sirius, the Dog Star, sparkles low in the east-southeast after dinnertime. Procyon, the Little Dog Star, shines in the east about two fists at arm’s length to Sirius’s left. ■ On Monday morning the 8th, the waning crescent […]
